I've been in that fan-student situation a couple of times an did went through smoothly cause the guys like to talk about "bass" and their relation to it and you wanna know cause you know their style and career and you have questions to ask, don't you?

Listen to his performances again beforehand, ask him about how he gets that sound on that song, as somebody suggested ask advices he wish he get when he was starting, his biggest mistakes, etc.

So with musicians you know and admire it just flows. Just avoid the "groupie" questions about "Aretha", "Chaka" and all the gossip some might want to get from a guy who knew people..

But once I was in a situation that somebody recommended I shoudl take a lesson with a great player I knew just by name (Percy Jones) and internet wasn't there to "check him out" so I went there with no knowledge of the guy and what I could ask/want from him!

And I told him so, and he just said "let's play for 10 minutes and I'll choose what I can pass to you according to how you play" and it was great, he took the lead at first and after the first 45 minutes I had loads of questions.

we had a 2+ hours lesson.

Great experience.

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